These Exclusive Industry Insights Aim to Revolutionize How Dental Practices Retain and Attract New Patients
In an effort to help dentists maximize their practices’ efficiency and patient satisfaction, Dandy has today announced the release of its first Dandy Dental Study: Patient Experience. Through original research, Dandy hopes to ultimately bring value to the dental community in the form of need-to-know intel and actionable next steps.
“We’ve orchestrated a survey of US dental patients and then synthesized the data in a way that gives color and real recommendations to dentists,” said Jeremy Wano, DMD, head of customer experience programs at Dandy. “For this first installment in particular, we honed in on three core elements of any dental practice: attracting new patients, retaining existing patients, and general findings around patient dissatisfaction. Our hope is that dentists can run with this and make meaningful change for their patients and ultimately their businesses.”
This first study of the series, linked here, is set to focus on patient experience. After noticing a “soft skills” gap in the profession, the team at Dandy chose to cast this survey to see what patients really think about their dentists, what makes them like the practice they go to, what would make them leave a practice, what they look for in a practice, and what would prompt them to endorse a practice.
One of the most valuable takeaways within the study, particularly from a marketing standpoint, is that 67% of people looking for a new dentist use online reviews, with Google being the most popular platform by a landslide. Additional findings can be found below:
Attracting New Patients:
● 76% of people looking at online reviews seek information on location and insurance in reviews.
● 1-in-4 look for modern dental technology in the reviews.
● 72% of 26-35 year-olds have switched dentists within the past five years
Retaining Existing Patients:
● 93% of patients who said their procedures were explained well, rated their dentist 5-out-of-5.
● Practices with a scanner were 12% more likely to be recommended than those with traditional methods. Patients who experienced the digital scanner perceived to have less time in the chair than expected to those who had traditional impressions.
● 62% of patients have switched dentists due to poor experience and rated their dentist low on transparency
Patient Dissatisfaction:
● 8% of Adult US dental patients only go to the dentist when something is wrong.
● 15% of the country switches dentists each year.
● On average patients switch dentists every 7 years.
Dandy is the only end-to-end partner for dental practices incorporating digital dentistry, and practices efficiency through revolutionary technology, skillful training, and world-class support.
A dentist who is powered by Dandy, Dr. Barry Bartusiak of Bartusiak Dental Care said, “There’s an absolute direct correlation between patient satisfaction and your practice’s bottom line. Patients don’t know if I did a good job–if I'm Da Vinci in the way I did their fillings–they have no idea. But their perception, because we treated them with respect and kindness, leads us to where we wanna be. The patient's perception is, ‘Dentists are all about the same’ so what sets you apart is, in their opinion, is how you treated them.”
The Dandy Dental Study tapped Isurus Market Research to survey 600 Americans aged 26 and above who go to the dentist regularly and have had a dental procedure done within the last 10 years.
Additional stats and quotes:
88% of those 35 years old and under looked at Google Reviews.
76% of people looking at online reviews seek information on location and insurance in reviews 77% of people look at the practice’s website
75% of people who rate their dentist very high have recommended the practice
81% have high satisfaction with their current dentist
What prompted elective procedure:
30% Just wanted it done
19% Thought about it, didn’t seriously consider until a conversation with dentist
51% Dentist suggested it
How quickly a dental procedure was done:
75% ASAP
14% Put if off because of schedule
8% Put it off to think about it
4% Put it off until something forced it to be done
Why people switch dentists:
28% because they moved away from location of practice
23% because of a poor experience
22% because insurance changed
25% of people over 55 years old had to find a new dentist because theirs retired
For more information, visit meetdandy.com and find the e-book available for download here.
